International students experience significant acculturative stress when adjusting to life in the United States, which can lead to issues like depression and anxiety. However, relying on personal strengths like personal growth initiative, hardiness, and a universal-diverse orientation can help reduce stress and promote better adjustment. Counselors can encourage international students to reflect on their multicultural strengths and engage with campus resources and cross-cultural activities to develop social connections and communication skills that facilitate cultural adaptation.

1. International Students’ Personal and Multicultural Strengths: Reducing Acculturative Stress and
Promoting Adjustment
Elena S. Yakunina, Ingrid K. Weigold, Arne Weigold, Sanja Hercegovac, and Noha Elsayed
Issues of concerns
· Coming to the United States as an international student can
be challenging, demanding, and stressful.
· International students experience homesick- ness;
interpersonal isolation; and difficulty reaching out to
American peers, and negotiating conflicting cultural values
(Kac- zmarek, Matlock, Merta, Ames, & Ross, 1995; Mori,
2000; Olivas & Li, 2006; Yeh & Inose, 2003).
· Acculturative stress is related to a variety of negative
outcomes, including depression, anxiety, and somatic
symptoms (Constantine, Okazaki, & Utsey, 2004; Misra et al.,
2003; Wei et al., 2007; Wilton & Constantine, 2003).
Interventions
· Rely on personal and multicultural strengths to alleviate
acculturative stress and achieving optimal adjustment
· Take a strengths-based, growth-oriented approach, to help
reduce acculturative stress and achieve better adjustment (Tseng
& Newton, 2002).
· Develop a sense of resilience, and maintain an optimistic attitude
(Lipson & Goodman, 2008; Tseng & Newton, 2002).
Variables
1: Personal growth initiative
According to Robitschek et al. (2012), people who score
high on personal growth initiative demonstrate high levels
of planfulness, strong desire to grow, readiness for change,
intentional behavior, and consciously work to develop their
talents and abilities.
2: Hardiness
Hardiness elicits more positive cognitive appraisals of
environmental stressors, while also activating more action-
oriented strategies for reducing psychological stress (Maddi
et al., 2006). They maintain their confidence, engagement,
and enthusiasm, to cope effectively with the initial
frustrations of study abroad.
3: Universal-Diverse Orientation
Helps in making cross-cultural friendships and to establish
connections with American peers by joining more social
clubs and activities and, experience fewer cultural conflicts,
less acculturative stress, and more optimal cross-cultural
adjustment.
Practical Implications
· Academic, career, and mental health counselors could ask international students to reflect on their personal and multicultural strengths that they bring to
the cross-cultural journey.
· Practicing English, developing friendships with other American and international students, joining different student clubs and organizations, increasing their
cross-cultural communication, competence and self-efficacy, approaching professors with questions and asking for help, and using the on-campus support
services offered by the university.
References
Fuertes, J. H., Miville, M. L., Mohr, J. J., Sedlacek, W. E., & Gretchen, D. (2000). Factor structure and short form of the Miville-Guzman Universality-Diversity Scale, Measurement and
Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 33, 157–169
Institute of International Education. (2010). Open Doors 2010 fast facts: International students in the United States. Retrieved from http://www.iie.org/en/research-and-publications/open-doors
Johnson, L. R., & Sandhu, D. S. (2007). Isolation, adjustment, and acculturation issues of international students: Intervention strategies for counselors. In H. Singaravelu & M. Pope (Eds.), A
handbook for counseling international students in the United States (pp. 13–37), Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.
Kaczmarek, P. G., Matlock, G., Merta, R., Ames, M. H., & Ross, M. (1995). An assessment of international college student adjustment, International Journal for the Advancement of Counseling,
17, 241–247, doi: 10.1007/BF01407740